Just wondering how many of you do this? Year round? Just in the spring? etcI can't remember who it was offhand anymore, but I believe one of our Stump Sitters had some great knowledge on this???

Offer up what you have, your thoughts, observations, your mix, anything you might do to for the deer and mineral enhancements

Until a few years ago i was public land only in Florida, so I didn't give it much thought.My current lease is a cattle ranch, so putting it down year round would be costly endeavor (figure i'd be feeding the cattle AND the deer )This year I found another piece of land that i'll be able to hunt that has no livestock. I did some research and figure i'd give the mineral enhancement a shot. FL typically has such poor soil throughout many areas of the state, I would think the deer would benefit greatly.

Here is the recipe I was going to play with (once I hear from others)

1 part salt1 part trace mineral1 part dical

"Go as far as you can see; when you get there, you'll be able to see farther."

I've never done this personally, but I've read a bit about it. From what I understand, if you want to add minerals to grow bigger antlers, the the off season, early spring through summer (antler growing season) is critical...

Was it Shaman who noticed that they didn't really use salt licks during season? This means that unless the minerals happen to be along the route they would be taking for food, etc during hunting season they probably won't work as a "bait" setup...

that's about all I've got...

"When a hunter is in a tree stand with high moral values and with the proper hunting ethics and richer for the experience, that hunter is 20 feet closer to God." ~Fred Bear

I've always put out these small red mineral bricks that are the size of a house brick. I buy them by the case from the local farm / feed store. I look for a good clay spot ( I find that clay works the best) and dig a small hole, not deep, but big enough that the brick will fit in. Everytime it rains the minerals seep into the ground and the deer will eat up the ground. They just keep scraping the ground and eating until a large hole develops. I've had them go to 10' deep and 2 1/2 to 3 ft wide. Spring time is the best with rains comming. One place during the summer, I had a feeder with a mineral brick about 10ft away and one day watched a buck come in and he went to the mineral brick first. Some have deer trails comming in from every direction looking like an old spoked wagon wheel. In another place there is a very small water hole that I put these bricks right in the water, and one time watched a large adult doe drink the water and I was wondering if she was ever going to stop drinking. It must have been good.I have some good pics of some mineral holes that I'll have to dig up and put on here.

Last year I was out scouting turkeys, and a herd of 5 deer met me at one of my licks, and I think they were seriously thinking about running me off. Yes, I do a few licks every year. I use rock salt (loose, not block) and bury it about a foot down, well mixed with soil. The deer tear it up. Now is the time of year to be doing it too. By August, deer have mostly lost interest.

We are currently trying this for the first time this spring and the results so far have been pretty amazing (outside of the camera dying twice). The first time we had over 1k pictures of deer in a few days. With corn we were averaging about 300 pictures in a week. The second attempt we caught turkey in the same mineral lick. The wildlife seem to devour the stuff and I picked everything up for about 45 - 50 bucks (about 200 lbs). The weather hasn't been cooperating as of late so we haven't been able to refresh, but from the results I have seen this works exactly like any other mineral supplement I used last year at about 1/10th of the cost.

rthomas4 wrote:Rock salt! I had never even thought about that. Cheap and easy. I'm going to give that a try.

rthomas...

The dical has the mineral supplements that deer need like vitamins, etc. however from what I've read it's not the best tasting to the deer. So in order to improve the taste for them you add the salt. Like I said, we haven't had a full season yet using the stuff, but so far it is working just like the commercial stuff. Also, as others have stated the licks seem to get hit the hardest in the early spring into the beginning of summer (maybe June?). After that timeframe them seem to get off of it and hit the food much harder than the minerals. I have to believe this is because by the time summer greens start they are getting minerals and supplements from food and don't rely on the nutrients from the mineral licks as much. So in the ideal world I'd put it out right after the season ends and continue to refresh until around May or June and then let it go for the summer maybe only refreshing once. In PA you have to have the stuff out 30 days prior to the start of the season otherwise you can get busted for baiting so going forward with what I learned last year I'll stop refreshing around June or July for the remainder of the year. Also, like the commercial products they recommend you put licks near clean water sources.

I've tried the mineral blocks, and made mineral licks with the bagged stuff, and for some reason the deer on my place just never seem interested. I believe it's possibly due to the area near where my pond is located. Back in 1968 when we dug the pond, the dirt was mostly clay and limestone composition with a high mineral content. That dirt was eventually spread around the pond area, and I believe it's supplying enough natural mineral that the deer just don't get interested in the other sites I've set up in the past.